Research Interests

Social Cognition

I am interested in the process and content of individual’s social inferences. Some questions that guide this research are:

What sources of information are people attending to in forming social inferences?

What is the underlying cognitive process of that inference formation?

What inferences are people making, and when are they making them?

In this pursuit, I am currently collaborating with Dr. Adena Schachner on a project using Bayesian computational models to characterize when individuals infer social transmission of ideas in artifact creation. More information on this line of research can be found here.

Altered States of Consciousness

I am also interested, broadly, in altered states of consciousness (ASC). My research in this domain investigates both pharmacologically elicited ASC (with particular emphasis on classic serotonergically-mediated psychedelics), as well as naturally occurring ASC often elicited through the engagement of cultural technologies (meditation, yoga, drum circles, chanting, etc.). Here, I attempt to better characterize both the phenomenology and enduring effects of such experiences, with particular emphasis on their clinical applications.